Disability as an Emerging Public Health Crisis in Postearthquake Nepal

Abstract

Just before noon on April 25, 2015, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred about 80 kilometers east of the Nepali capitol of Kathmandu, unleashing considerable destruction in one of the poorest countries in Asia. Then, just 17 days later, a second earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck, this time about 40 kilometers west of Kathmandu. Although predictions of an impending large earthquake in Nepal had motivated the government and local and international nongovernmental organizations to create disaster preparedness plans in recent years,1,2 this disaster affected rural and remote areas where the country’s infrastructure and population were most vulnerable, and where disaster preparedness was weakest.3 The current estimates of casualties and injured are more than 8500 and 15 000 people respectively, and the numbers of internally displaced people are in the hundred of thousands. Most agencies forecast that these numbers will increase over the coming weeks as the strategy shifts to a reconstruction mission. A Nepalese mother and child participate in a laughter yoga session to help relieve trauma among survivors of two earthquakes, which struck the country in less than three weeks, in Kathmandu on May 15, 2015. Photograph by Prakash Mathema. Printed with ... Kathmandu Durbar Square in the days following the April 25, 2015, earthquake. Photo by Michel D. Landry. Printed with permission. Collapsed temples in Bhaktapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo by Michel D. Landry. Printed with permission.